Romania History: Difference between revisions

Christianity in Romania dates back almost to the time of Christ.  According to Romanian tradition, the Apostle Andrew first taught the gospel in Romania. Archeologists have found Christian churches and artifacts dating to the second century in Apuseni and Carpathians mountains, as well as in Dobrogea and other areas of Romania. In the third century, slaves brought in from Asia Minor by the Goths included Christians who then taught the Daco-Roman people. In the sixth century, a metropolitan was established in Tomis, a city in Dobrogea. The metropolitan was under the bishop and later Patriarch of Constantinople. Thus, when the schism occured between Catholic Rome and Orthodox Constantinople, the Romanian parishes became orthodox. The Tomis Metropolitanate is the foundation of the Romanian Orthodox Church, which became an independent church in 1878.  

Roman Catholicism was introduced into Transylvania and Banat when the Hungarians took over those area in the 10th century. The number of Romanians who chose to remain Orthodox in this area led to a number of conflicts. For example, the Edict of Turda in 1389 deprived all Orthodox Romanians of their civil rights.  

The Protestant Reformation introduced Calivinism and other sects among Hungarians and Germans in Transylvania and Banat in the 16th century. After Austro-Hungary reestablished its control in 1698, the orthodox metropolitan of Transylvania, under political pressure, asked the Pope to enter communion with the Catholic church, on the condition that they could continue mass in the Byzantine rite. The pope agreed, and that is the foundation of the Greek Catholic Church in Romania. In the 17th century, Jesuit priests came to Transylvania as part of the counter-reformation. Transylvania and the Banat became a cosmopolitan mix of Calvinist Reformed, Evangelical Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic and Jewish religions was common here.

Since 1991, Romania has enjoyed full religious freedom.<br>